Canadian singer, songwriter, rapper and now-poet, Drake, possesses a legacy that precedes him. He is a name that is known globally and a frequent visitor on the Billboard Charts. In a cover drawn by his son, Adonis, Drake advertised For All The Dogs as a flashback to his old self, giving fans visions of albums like Take Care, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, and Nothing Was The Same. He was quoted as saying: “If you didn’t like any of my past works, then this album is for you.” 

This record, however, sounds EXACTLY like his last three or four full length albums. Drake stays on brand. Making the same repetitive and plain songs and whenever he does go out of his comfort zone, he frequently falls flat on his face. It’s an entertaining album from songs one through nine, then it seems he runs out of ideas and changes the energy on ‘Bahamas Promises’, then does the same on ‘Tried Our Best.’ This pattern continues, with the only changes being a sort of up-tempo instrumental and flow from Drizzy on ‘What Would Pluto Do?’, then Drake raps over a Conductor beat on ‘8 AM in Charlotte.’ While ‘8AM’ has the same energy as the other tracks on the backend of this record, it’s him communicating outside of the relationship turbulence he’s discussed for over a decade. This track is easily one of the best solo Drake songs in a long time. 

Another instance of Drake changing the vibe is ‘Gently,’ which features Spanish Superstar, Bad Bunny. On this track, you’ll hear something you may  never hear again; Drake singing in Spanish. An overall uncomfortable song that felt wrong to listen to. Bad Bunny kicks in on the second part and adds energy to the verse which doesn’t make the song COMPLETELY unbearable. However, it’s still a terrible chore to listen through. The following track, ‘Rich Baby Daddy’ isn’t much better. Giving Sexyy Redd the melody to a dance instrumental was the wrong idea, however, SZA glides over the beat for 15-seconds. Whereas Drake and Sexyy Redd get two verses, both being subpar and mediocre. Lil Yatchy continues having an astounding year with a guest feature on  ‘Another Late Night’ and to give Drake credit, he does a good job matching Yachtys’ energy on the track. However, the two following tracks,  ‘Away From Home’ and  ‘Polar Opposites’ again felt the same.

The back end of this 90-minute, 23 song album is extremely underwhelming. However, the first-half is actually pretty good. The intro song,  ‘Virginia Beach’ is a good player for the project, and  ‘Amen’ features Breakout Artist, Teezo Touchdown, does an amazing job at being unique and interesting.  ‘Calling For You’ features 21 Savage, who shows how he cannot be trusted to deliver a worthwhile verse on a song that isn’t in the trap genre. Overall, an okay song, but the mid-song interlude with a girl complaining for a whole minute derails the song and makes it unpleasurable. ‘Fear of Heights’ and ‘Daylight’ are  upbeat, high energy solo Drake tracks (outside of his son Adonis making a slight feature on the latter). ‘First-Person-Shooter’ is the first time J. Cole and Drake collaborated on a track and it’s a huge success. J. Cole absolutely snaps in the middle of the song, not disappointing one bit. On the other hand, Drake opens the track boasting about how he’s the ‘GOAT.’ Odd flex, but he came back with a beat switch in the second-half with a rapid verse and a relentless attack on the beat.

‘IDGAF’ has Yeat as its guest feature. The intro has a minute long jazz sample before he comes in with a consistent flow on the BNYX produced beat. Yeat does the majority of the work on this song while Drake kind of pours in meaningless bars that feel plain. This was Yeat’s unreleased song originally, but Drake stole it, made it worse, put it on his album, stealing it off of Yeats’ upcoming album, Afterlyfe.  ‘7969 Santa’ is a confusing song, with Chief Keef’s vocals on his hit-song, ‘I Don’t Like’ sampled in the background in the first half. Drake is good on the song. Suddenly, an unfeatured Teezo Touchdown comes in angelically singing on the second-half, adding ample value to the track. All of a sudden, Snoop Dogg came as a cameo on the backend of the song, taking the role of a host on the fictional BARK Radio. 

‘Slime You Out’ is the lead single for the album, and it’s a decent track. At five minutes, it’s the second longest track on the album and as expected, has some cringe worthy lines such as “July is when I found out Ju-lied.” ‘All The Parties’ features Chief Keef, but instead of putting him on a beat where he thrives, Drake features him for 15-20 seconds on a slow melodic instrumental. Very forgettable song on the already bad second-half of the album.

Speaking of forgettable songs, ‘Members Only’ features fellow OVO signee, PARTYNEXTDOOR, and interludes it’s the definition of a filler song. No purpose, nothing to grab your attention, it’s plain, bland, and boring. I’ve heard a lot better PND features, and on a record that undeniably needs to be shorter, this is easily one of the worst tracks on this album.

Overall Review + Rating

I’ve now listened through the album around 3 or so times and I can finally say this: “Is this album bad? Not necessarily. Is it boring? Absolutely.”

This is an album to snooze on, and the song majority isn’t too bad. It’s rather that Drake, the 36-year-old man, still talks of girl problems like in ‘Take Care’ and ‘Thank Me Later.’ The first-half is good and enjoyable to listen to, however, after ‘IDGAF,’ the record falls off a cliff. Drake starts to be sad boy Drizzy over sad beats featuring artists that didn’t need to be on the dejected tracks, examples being Chief Keef, and Sexyy Redd. 

The main story is yet again, Drake swings and misses. With hit or miss features and sub-par performances, the album is massively disappointing. Drake fails to keep me entertained through a full length LP while his die-hard superfans keep clambering for him being the greatest artist ever. While his die-hards keep up their praise, he still delivers duds like Certified Lover Boy, Honestly, Nevermind, and the 21 Savage collaboration album, Her Loss.

This album’s rating is 3.6/10.

Favorite Tracks: ‘First-Person-Shooter’ (ft. J Cole), ‘IDGAF’ (Ft. Yeat), ‘Amen’ (Ft. Teezo Touchdown), ‘8AM in Charlotte’

Least Favorite Tracks: ‘Rich Baby Daddy’ (Ft. Sexyy Red, SZA)  ‘Gently’ (Ft. Bad Bunny)  Polar Opposites (Ft. 21 Savage), ‘Members Only’ (Ft. PARTYNEXTDOOR), ‘All The Parties’ (Ft. Chief Keef)